ComicsOnline’s 2009 PS3 Video Game Gift Guide
With the mass of video game titles pouring in over the holiday season, it can be hard to wade through the shovel ware and find the treasures hidden among the trash. We here at ComicsOnline have done all the hard work for you and provided a list of the best Playstation 3 games available to scribble on your Christmas list. With our help, you’ll spend less time fighting soccer moms for parking spaces and more time with the best games of the season.
Top PS3 Games:
ComicsOnline’s Extreme Metal Gift Guide
Extreme Metal Gift Guide
Extreme Metal covers many genres of the metal world; death, black, grindcore, thrash, doom Viking, folk, gothic, the list go on. The point is, extreme metal is diverse and multi-faceted, as well as in your face. Covering a variety of topics from war, politics, mythologies, monsters and heroes, barbarians and pirates, and chaos in general, the devil plays a relatively miniscule part of most bands repertoire. But as you can see by the list of topics why metal is so popular, and used frequently in soundtracks for a variety of movies. So here’s my picks to help you with that moody niece or nephew, or hard to buy for music fan.
ComicsOnline’s Classic Rock Gift Guide
Classic Rock Gift Guide
Everyone knows Classic Rock. It’s that station on the radio dial that plays this music that’s almost cool. The station that the guy in the car next to you is drumming on his steering wheel to. The music your dad listens to on those round black things. Well not all Classic Rock artists have self-destructed their career, or self-destructed period, and here’s my picks for the ones that have a reason to celebrate.
ComicsOnline’s Alternative Rock Gift Guide
As a heavily music-oriented person, I always opened up to all genres of music and found myself leaning towards alternative rock, mostly because of the influences around me. But as I got older, alternative rock/punk rock definitely became my favorite type of music to listen to. I am always trying to find new music to listen to and new stuff from my favorite bands so creating an Alternative Rock Gift Guide will also help other modern rockers find new, great music.
AFI: Crash Love
ComicsOnline’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Gift Guide
As an avid reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, who reads an average of three books per week, I am always on the lookout for new books and authors. Luckily, many of my friends read as much as I do, and over the years they've provided an invaluable source of introductions to new series and authors. The following are books that were gifted to me in the last few years, and which started me down a road of new authors and series that I found extremely enjoyable. These books are all first in a series or stand-alone titles, so they can be given as gifts to readers who may never have read anything the author has written previously.
ComicsOnline’s Holiday Gift Guides 2009
ComicsOnline’s TV on DVD Gift Guide
Every year the new seasons of your favorite television shows come out on DVD, but occasionally there are special box sets and extra DVD's that are just must-have for any chic geek. Here's a look at some of the best offerings you can pick up this year.
5 TV Show Sets You Can Buy on Amazon for a Penny Gift Guide
If I had a penny for every friend I had, I would be pretty shitty at buying Christmas presents and don't worry, I am. Amazon is a great micro-economy that clearly displays supply and demand, you can make good money reselling items from your own collections that people really want and find more generally undesired items for sale dirt cheap. Let's face it, ComicsOnline reader, your friends and family probably don't expect much from you. You're the kind of person that relatives refuse to give cash to because they know where it'll go. But there's a way around this, (no, I don't mean selling Best Buy gift cards for 75% of their value on Craigslist) save massive amounts of money on presents for people you don't really care about much in the first place (YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, YOU'RE NOT MY REAL MOM, CAROL)!
ComicsOnline’s Horror Gift Guide
Horror Movie Gift Guide
The season of cheer has also been notorious for some great celluloid terrors; demonic snowmen, killer Santa Clauses and sorority co-eds being stalked over Christmas break, so why not give the gift that keeps on scaring. Here’s some ideas for that hard to buy for horror aficionados.
TV’s Pre-Sweeps Report Card
It’s that time of year again, November Sweeps. We’ve had five or six weeks of programming for most shows and now face some re-runs before the big Fall push to establish a shows status on the ratings ladder. But how are shows doing before their November extravaganzas?
I’m going to take you through the shows I watch and why I will or won’t continue to view them.
Monday
ComicsOnline Turns Nine
Hello again and welcome to the first day of ComicsOnline’s 10th year.
It was almost ten years ago that Comic City owner George Thrush first approached me to recreate his website, and what you see here is the third version since. We’ve gone through 3 owners, from George, to Karl, to me, and we’ve grown considerably since September 25th, 2000. We started the site using a content management system (dynamic website) software called PHPNuke, and while it was cutting edge at the time, it was full of security holes and we were hacked several times, causing the gaps in content you see when you look at the old site. Finally last year due to our old web host suddenly upgrading his software, we were forced to upgrade or die, and now we’re using a much more advanced and secure CMS software called Drupal.
More of Karls Comic Con Highlights
I met some interesting people on the convention floor this year, established companies, promoters, services, and the ground level publishers.
At the Soulgeek booth I met Ben Paddington, co-creator and head writer of the online comic Jump Leads http://www.jump-leads.com/. This is a futuristic story of dimension hopping with cynic Richard Llewellyn and the enthusiastic Thomas Meany. Stranded in a faulty dimension hopping craft Llewellyn and Meany are left to their own wits to find their way back. I’ve read the hard copy of issue 1 (they’re up to issue 7 on the website) and it’s hilarious. When you read this, the in jokes and play on words is reminiscent of a certain Main Man. Give this a look and tell Ben I sent you.
Karls Comic Con 2009 Highlights
So the San Diego Comic Convention has ended, we’re all back home, and hopefully all caught up on housework, yard work, schoolwork, whatever we got behind on to go to Comic Con. And by now we’ve gone through our swag, purchases, and freebees, and are trying to place an item with the event or booth. Here are some of mine.
Comic-Con 2009: Pictures From Around the Booths Part I
San Diego Comic-Con 2009 had more than its share of exhibitors this year, from the standard fare to the truly unique; here are a few of the booths and vendors the 2009 Comic-Con had to offer:
New from Roddenberry Presents
Promoting Stargate Universe
Comic-Con 2009: Pictures From Around the Booths Part II
More pictures from around the booths at the San Diego Comic-Con 2009. I found this booth particularly amusing, Star Trek themed perfumes. The fragrance Khaaann was exclusive to the Con, but it was the Red Shirt ad that I really loved; Red Shirt Cologne, Because Tomorrow May Never Come!
This display is HUGE! Several people could actually have fit in this cockpit.